The Swedish Space Cooperation (SSC) has signed a collaboration agreement with the US arm of the Japanese space company ispace to provide ground services for its upcoming Mission 3 flight to the surface of the Moon.
Expected to be launched in 2026, the ispace Mission 3 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and will be the first aboard the company’s APEX 1.0 lunar lander. It is expected to touch down in the Schrödinger Basin on the far side of the Moon. The mission’s focus is to validate the lander as a platform capable of providing low-cost and high-utility access to the lunar service for a wide variety of payloads. APEX 1.0 will be designed and manufactured in the United States.
The collaboration agreement, signed on June 25, will see SSC provide critical communication links for the mission’s commanding, telemetry, ranging, and Doppler. SSC will offer this capability through its SSC CONNECT lunar ground station network.
“SSC’s cutting-edge technology coupled with their extensive lunar experience gives us great confidence that SSC will contribute significantly to the success of our lunar mission,” ispace-U.S. CEO Ron Garan said in a statement.
SSC launched its SSC CONNECT offering in April 2022, gathering a number of capabilities and related services “under one branded roof.” According to the company, SSC CONNECT offers, among other services, “the world’s first commercial lunar communications solution.”
